Don't Blame the Bugs

Have you ever experienced real fear? Most of
us have tasted moments of panic at some
time in our lives, even if it was only the
first wobbling solo effort on a bicycle or canter on a
horse. For others it may have been the first terrifying
public speech or careening down a 30-degree
slope for the first time on skis without having a real
idea of how to stop.

These are all fears that fade with familiarity: As we
gain confidence and experience there is no longer the
same sense of trepidation. But there is another type
of fear that is more insidious. It is instilled in us from
an early age and conditions our minds and the way
we conduct our lives for years to come. It is a fear that
has created multi-million-dollar industries and the
use of vast public and private resources to combat the
perceived danger.

And what is it that has the power to disrupt our
lives to such a degree, the potential to make intelligent
men and women lose their objectivity and
reason? It is something we cannot even see with the
naked eye—microbes, bacteria, viruses—the “bugs”
we blame for every minor ailment or affliction that
besets us.

People say “I have a tummy bug” when they have
indigestion, or a cough or cold is attributed to “a
virus.” It not only passes the responsibility for their
predicament to an invisible and malicious force, but
it makes them a victim of circumstances beyond their
control and creates the notion that they have only
to kill off the unfortunate microbial scapegoat for all
to be well. It has created a great misconception that
has prevailed for well over 100 years: that health is
synonymous with hygiene.

The Sanitization of Life

From our earliest years hygiene is instilled in us: We
must wash our hands, clean our teeth, use only our
own towels. Millions of pounds are made by manufacturers
of chemicals and detergents to kill all possible
germs and sterilize our lives. We pour precious
resources into the sanitization of our society. Sterility
has become synonymous with purity, and cleanliness
close to so much more than godliness. How else can
we explain the universal preference for “whiter than
white,” which has followed the missionaries into the
remotest corners of the earth?

I’m not suggesting that hygiene and cleanliness
are unnecessary. They have brought enormous benefits
to mankind. We know, for example, that better
conditions in childbirth have reduced infant mortality
and, thereby, raised the average life expectancy.
Many contagious illnesses have been controlled and a
better quality of life is enjoyed by people as a result of the practice of asepsis in many spheres of life. The problem is
that the whole notion of hygiene being health has left us with
the wrong priorities; we seem to have forgotten that health is
not simply the absence of disease.

The error of equating sterility with health goes back to
the time when people were searching for an explanation of
disease. Doctors had long recognized that poor sanitation
and poverty were equated with illness. Water in the river
Thames was believed to harbor all manner of evils.

Fundamental Flaws in the Germ Theory

In the late 19th century, Louis Pasteur came up with a plausible
explanation of disease: Germs were responsible for the
symptoms of disease, and, by implication, their eradication
would effect a return to normal health. This seemed such a
logical explanation for many of the ailments that afflicted
man and animals that it soon became accepted as a universal
truth. Any other theories of disease causation were
eclipsed, and the germ theory became a sort of dogma in the
manger. Pasteur’s fame (and the fortunes of many manufacturers
of antiseptics and antibiotics for a century) was based
on some largely false assumptions. These were:

That bacteria were found everywhere in the atmosphere,
and cause not only fermentation and putrefaction,
but also many diseases.

That each type of bacteria is a distinct species, and that
each species causes a specific disease.

That a normally healthy animal has bacteriologically
sterile tissues, and therefore…

That any disease of bacterial origin must be caused by
an invasion of external germs through direct or indirect
contact with pre-existing cases of the disease.

With the exception of the first assumption (which is
largely correct), these have since been proven false, but they
have not stopped the momentum of the pharmaceutical
industries which have based their main products on the
eradication of microbes.

In fact, modern bacteriologists recognize that, in spite
of asepsis and what Professor Rene Dubos in his 1965 book
Man Adapting called “the euphoria of modern medicine
over infectious disease,” mortality and morbidity rates have
not changed appreciably since Pasteur’s day. In fact so overchemicalized
have our bodies become that new and more
virulent strains of bacteria, such as MRSA, have appeared,
posing a real threat to patients in many of our hospitals.

From time to time, the media carry warnings of impending
epidemics of flu—caused, it is believed, by new viral strains
from the Far East, transmitted by birds, or from tropical zones,
transmitted by mosquitoes. The pharmaceutical industry
endeavors to provide new vaccines to prevent contagion, but
there is always concern that there will not be enough to go
around. In any case, they simply weaken the immune system,
making people more vulnerable to other microbes.

A Better Outlook

The outlook is not as gloomy as it might appear, however.
We don’t need to be afraid of illness and disease. We are not
the inevitable victims of vicious external pathogens waiting
to strike us down at every grubby corner we may frequent.
Our health is sustained by the dynamic interplay of our
emotions (the way we think, act, and feel); our structure
(our posture and the physical condition in which we maintain
our bodies); and our biochemistry (the way we use food
and other nourishment to maintain our function). These are
largely under our personal control. If we become unwell it is
usually the result of the breakdown of this balance, and the
bacteria and viruses which proliferate are a secondary consequence
of that breakdown. They may, in fact, have a vital
function to perform in bringing things back to normal—for
example, by scavenging and cleaning up unhealthy tissue.

So the next time you feel ill, don’t blame the bugs! Try
instead to see where things may have gone wrong with your
internal balancing process. Find the real cause of the disorder
and see if you can, in some way, start correcting it. Seek
ways to strengthen and sustain your own resilience and
immunity. As you learn to do so, you will begin to respect
and understand the wonderful self-regulatory powers of
your own body and mind.

Above all, you will gain a confidence that can eradicate
the leading cause of disease, which is fear itself.